The Future of Federated Search, or What Will the World Look like in 10 Years

Turner, Rich

Computers in Libraries, v29 n4 p39-41 Apr 2009

In this article, the author contends that in 10 years, federated search--or search of any kind for that matter--won't exist. He elaborates that the "function" of search will exist--but not in a context with which anyone is familiar today. So if "search" doesn't exist in 2018, how will people find the information that they need across vast volumes of information and disparate silos or datastores? Here, the author takes a look at what the world might be like in 2018. Identifying locations of information will become a market in its own right. The same way people outsource managing their CRM solutions to companies such as salesforce.com, they will outsource the mapping of their data and data sources to trusted entities. By 2018, storage will be so extensive, inexpensive, and ubiquitous that today's records management (RM) policies will be largely ineffective and--for lack of a better term--dead. Like it or not, everybody will save everything somewhere, probably in many places. RM will morph into more of a "know where it is and who has it" function than a matter of tracking the information life cycle or even worrying about destruction. The challenges people are wrestling with today in terms of privacy and data piracy will be solved by 2018, so don't be dissuaded by the "it's not secure" argument. The world will change "greatly" in 10 years. "Federated search" will become a significant but very "behind-the-scenes" part of how people interact every day with the digital world of 2018.